Nkoyas distance themselves from Barotse secession campaign

CHIEF Mwene Mutondo of the Nkoya people in Kaoma District in Western Province has said the people of his area have refused to be part of any talks aimed at dividing the people at the expense of national development.
And Senior Chief Kanongesha of the Lunda people of Mwinilunga District said it was now too late and unnecessary to revisit the Barotse Agreement.
Chief Mwene Mutondo said Kaoma was currently being developed and the talk about revisiting the Barotse Agreement with the aim of ensuring that Barotseland secedes from the rest of Zambia was mere rhetoric.
“What the people who are making a lot of noise about the Barotse Agreement are doing is merely wasting our time,” he said.
He said some parts of the country which were part of the Barotseland were now developed and people from all parts of Zambia and some neighbouring countries had settled in these areas.
He observed that revisiting the agreement would see most of the people who had greatly contributed to development leaving the area.
Chief Kanongesha said the areas which were part of the Barotseland were now part of Zambia and there were no reasons warranting the splitting of the country when its entire people were now one.
He said the Government was determined to see that all parts of the country were developed.
“What perhaps this country needs is seeing to it that development initiatives come from the grassroots and not coming from the top going down and this can be effectively done through revisiting policies guiding the country’s development and not splitting Zambia into two different countries,” the chief said.
Western Province, Copperbelt, North-Western and parts of Central Province were areas which were part of Barotseland which later joined with North-Eastern Rhodesia to make Northern Rhodesia which later became Zambia.
TIMES OF ZAMBIA